Recent Tasting Notes

This tea is very soothing, and tastes creamy even without milk. (It does also mix wonderfully with milk.) Even though Earl Grey means caffeine, the lavender and bergamot make you feel relaxed after drinking. The health benefits of this mix include fighting depression and anxiety, plus it smells amazing.

Flavors: Bergamot, Floral, Lavender, Musty

Preparation

Lemon peel tea is a traditional remedy in many countries. It is good to drink in the morning or after lunch, always accompanied with a natural sweetener, like honey for example. When you try it, you will not be able to stop. Its acidic, refreshing, and revitalizing taste will make this a perfect ally for your everyday well-being.

I can’t find this on their website but I hope they do still have it or put it up soon – it is yum.

This was given to me at the Southwest Tea Festival. Chado/Waterfall Teas gave the vendors at the event a little thank you gift when it was all over. I chose this one.

It is sweet vanilla creamy goodness with bergamot that is definitely there but mellowed around the edges by the vanilla. The base is a nice hearty black that isn’t a standout, but melds nicely with the vanilla and bergamot. As the cup cools, the vanilla comes out more heavily.

Preparation

What a great idea: matcha + genmaicha! Two of my favorite teas, together at last. Unfortunately, the reality is nowhere near the fantasy. This tea is watery and bland, without any flavor at all. There’s not enough matcha in it to give flavor, and for some reason the genmaicha is completely insipid, with no toasted rice taste. Most teas I can get two cups out of, but not this tea. On the second cup, all the matcha is gone and the genmaicha isn’t enough to flavor the water on its own. That wouldn’t be too much of a problem if at least the first cup had tasted good, but alas, such is not the case. A real disappointment.

Awful. Package says lemon tea with lemon peels. Upon opening it, the scent of lemon pledge rushes out of the package. While big chunks of lemon peel are visible in the tea, the brewed flavor is medicinal and harsh. I poured out a full pot and threw away the rest.

I was hoping I’d be able to bear some of this chado order, but so far the best of it has only been mediocre and the rest undrinkable.

this is kinda like a black tea that forgot it was supposed to be a pumpkin spice tea. Dinosara sent some my way and it appears that our impressions of this tea are similar. If i were going to drink a pumpkin spice tea…it wouldn’t be this one. this is like a snooze fest for my mouth. Oh well…love trying new teas! even if they’re not that impressive haha

Wow there was about 15 minutes there where the Steepster discussion boards were totally overtaken by spam. But it’s gone now!

So I’ve had this tea for a little while now, and I got it in a swap with IrishBreakfastLass. Thanks! At first I didn’t try it because it wasn’t “seasonal”, but then I didn’t try it because it didn’t seem that awesome. Lots of CTC leaf, and a kind of lackluster scent of the dry leaf. But I figured I should get around to tasting it sooner or later.

Yeah, lackluster smell of the brewed tea, too. It smells like the kind of gross CTC tea that I hate, along with some cinnamon. It doesn’t taste gross, but it also doesn’t really taste good. Kind of like the Butiki Pumpkin Creme Brulee tea I had earlier this week, this one tastes like not much at all anymore. Maybe like musty cinnamon. I wonder if pumpkin flavoring disappears faster than others? There is maybe a bit more to this one, though, and I wonder if I could force some flavor out of it by brewing it super strong then adding milk and sugar. Well, it goes home, and if it still sucks, it will meet the trash can!

Thank you, Dinosara for the opportunity to try this complex and very interesting tea! I completely understand what you meant when you talked about the different elements of this tea blending together in such a fascinating way. It’s not quite what I’m looking for in an Earl Grey, but it’s only by trying so many different varieties that you do get to dial that in!

Preparation

This is my first Pu Erh and wow, I’m not sure what to think. Extremely dark like black coffee, this tea this tea has a musty earthy aroma but little astringency. I’m not sure if I like it or not, but I have a feeling that it may grow on me.

Preparation

I was excited to try a number of distinctly different chai’s, but I’m not sure Chado’s chai’s are working out for me. This chai wasn’t bad. It definitely tastes like coconut, but the other spices are kinda flat. I couldn’t really detect individual spices, because they all seemed to fall in the same level. The black tea base isn’t as smooth as I’d like either. I thought that maybe next time honey might help the flavor a bit…will try that.

When brewed at the actual Chado Tea Room, they add a pinch of Mauritius. It’s their secret to an awesome cup. Every time I buy 8oz of coconut chai, I also order 1oz of Mauritius. It makes all the difference.

This tea does not taste like the description. Talk about false advertising! I should have known it when I opened the bag, because it smelled fruity..not at all caramel or vanilla. It tasted fruity and a bit floral too. Anyanka posted that it tasted like a floral honey, and I definitely get that. Maybe a fruity floral honey. I also got the sediment she talked about. Pretty unpleasant to have sediment in your last couple of sips. Overall, this was a disappointment, because some people raved about this tea on the yelp page for this tea house. It makes me wonder if it got cross-contaminated somehow with another tea. At least their samples sizes are pretty cheap for how much you get!

Ha, I’d just logged back in and this popped up. It smells weird, doesn’t it? No caramel or vanilla at all. I’m tossing the rest of mine, I opened it yesterday and realized I didn’t want it ever again. I’m a little worried that Chado, being a tea house more than a tea supplier, is going to be disappointing.

We have been running around a lot on our week off, so I haven’t had much time for steepster, but I wanted to let you know I tried this one last night. It definitely smelled and tasted like rooibos, so for those of you that are sensitive to that, it’s probably not for you. I guess the butterscotch was in the aftertaste. I have not had a lot of butterscotch, although I do remember my mom using butterscotch chips to make haystack cookies, so I wasn’t sure if this tasted exactly like butterscotch. To me, it was like toffee…kind of buttery and sweet. For some reason the taste lingered on my teeth! Weird! Anyway, not bad. I’ll have to have some more to figure out what I really think about it.

I had almost forgotten about a tin of this Nilgiri at the back of the cabinet. I found it behind the hibiscus flowers and allspice berries.

I sought something a little different this morning, but didn’t have time for a major presentation. I used a gaiwan, water boiled with a piece of bamboo charcoal, and didn’t add anything else. It’s balanced in flavor, and has good texture. It’s also remarkably not stale, and I know I have had this on hand for over a year.

This is a decent blend, though not one of my absolute favorites. Of the additions to the rooibos, the orange stands out the most- so much so that I can’t taste rooibos (not a problem). The cinnamon comes up next, and I faintly taste almond, it’s really a backdrop. If you like orange-cinnamon tea, give it a shot- even if you don’t like rooibos!